- Title: WEST BANK: DEMONSTRATORS CLASH WITH ISRAELI SOLDIERS IN WEST BANK NEAR HEBRON
- Date: 2nd December 2004
- Summary: (W5) BEIT ULA, NEAR HEBRON, WEST BANK (DECEMBER 2, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. LV OF DEMONSTRATION AREA WITH PEOPLE GATHERING / EMERGENCY WORKERS SETTING UP TENT 0.05 2. SV ELDERLY MAN ON HILLSIDE 0.10 3. SLV OF DEMONSTRATORS GATHERING / CARRYING TENT 0.16 4. SV OF DEMONSTRATORS CLASHING WITH ISRAELI SOLDIERS (3 SHOTS) 0.30 5. SLV DE
- Embargoed: 17th December 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BEIT ULA, NEAR HEBRON, WEST BANK
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Reuters ID: LVA4TMT40FZSN9RFTHGVXUGK390V
- Story Text: Demonstrators clash with Israeli soldiers in West
Bank near Hebron
Clashes broke as hundreds of Palestinian and
international demonstrators gathered in the town of Beit
Ula on Thursday (December 2, 2004) to protest against the
construction of a controversial separation barrier dividing
Israel from the West Bank.
Scuffles broke out between Israeli soldiers and the
demonstrators in the town near to Hebron in the West Bank.
Widespread opposition to the barrier still exists
despite a court ruling to change the wall's route.
The rerouted barrier will cut through eight percent of
the West Bank, less than half of what was originally
planned, security sources say.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has approved a shorter
route for the barrier condemned by Palestinians and by the
United Nation's highest court, but which Israel says it
needs to keep suicide bombers from reaching its cities.
The planned 600 km (360 mile) long barrier of cement
wall, razor wire-tipped electronic fences and trenches was
rerouted after Israel's Supreme Court ordered adjustments
last June to minimise land confiscations from Palestinians.
The barrier's length before it was rerouted was 720 km
(447 miles) and it was planned to snake deep into the West
Bank and loop around numerous settlements.
The new route takes in less settlements and will follow
more closely the "green line" which delineates the frontier
on the eve of the 1967 Middle East war when Israel occupied
the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the source said.
Under the new route about 400,000 dunams (100,000
acres) of West Bank land would be cordoned off from the
rest of the occupied territory, instead of 900,000 dunams
(225,000 acres).
This would mean that eight percent of the West Bank
would be cut off from the rest of the territory. Palestinians say
t
hat tens of thousands of villagers
caught on the Israeli side of the barrier would be cut off
from relatives, farmland, hospital and school facilities,
and that the new Israeli court resolution does not solve
humanitarian and political problems caused by the barrier.
Israel has said that the barrier judged illegal by the
U.N.'s International Court of Justice in July was a
temporary security measure. Only about a third has been
built since construction began in 2003.
Palestinian leaders have denounced the barrier as a
grab for land they want for a state promised by the
U.S.-backed road map peace plan.
ENDS.
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